100 Famous Women in China

Zhao Yidi (05/28/1912—06/22/2000) was born in Hong Kong. She was at first the mistress of general Zhang Xueliang (06/03/1901—10/15/2001 AD), commanding the army in the northeastern China, and then became his wife.
In 1928, she went to Tianjin city to attend the Northeast University and got acquainted with general Zhang. Thus she became his secretary as well as his mistress. As Zhang had wife, she could not become his wife. But she followed him everywhere ever since.
After the XiAn Incident on the twelfth of December in 1936, when he and another general were detained by Chiang Kai-shek, he was confined ever since and the girl accompanied him in his confinement for as long as seventy-two years. When Chiang escaped to Taiwan, he sent Zhang there too. And the girl ensued.
In 1940, Zhang's wife was diagnosed to have breast cancer and went to USA for treatment. In 1964, Zhang divorced her and married the girl as his second wife. She had a son with Zhang.

Jiang Zhujun (08/20/1920—11/14/1949) was nicknamed Sister Jiang. She was born in Zigong town of Sichuan province. When she was eight years old, her mother left her idle father, taking her and her brother to Chongqing city, where her uncle lived. At the age of ten, she entered a sock factory and worked as child labor. Since her stature was shorter than the machine, the owner of the factory specially had a high stool made for her. Next year, she was sent to an orphanage run by a church. She then worked part time and studied part time.
In 1939, she joined the Communist Party of China. In 1945, she was married to Peng Yongwu (1915—1948), who was a local party secretary. After the marriage, she worked for the newspaper published by CPC. In the winter of 1947, she was sent to Xiachuandong area to help Peng to organize the armed force. She was a liaison person. In 1948, her husband Peng died in a riot against the KMD government. She then succeeded his position and continued the revolution. On the fourteenth day of June in the same year, she was arrested owing to the betrayal of a comrade. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Chongqing city. She was of course tormented, but she refused to give any information of the Party's work. On the fourteenth day of November, 1949, she was executed at the age of twenty-eight. She had a son with Peng, and his name is Peng Yun, who now lives in USA.

75. Liu Hulan 劉胡蘭 (youngest CPC member, killed by KMD)
Liu Hulan (10/08/1932—01/12/1947) was born in a peasant's family in Yunzhouxi Village in the district of Wenshui town in Shanxi province. The village was now renamed as Liu Hulan Village. At that time that village was under the control of CPC. At eight years old, she went to a primary school there and accepted the Party's education. At ten, she joined scouts. In October of 1945, she took part in the “Female Cadre Training Class” for a month. When she was back, she became the secretary of the women's national salvation society. In May of 1946, she was promoted to be a female cadre in the fifth district. In June, she joined the Party.
In the autumn of 1946, KMD army came to Wenshui town, and all the party's cadres escaped to the military base in Luuliang Mountains. The Party leaders thought that she was too young to cause the attention of the enemy, and so she stayed. On the twenty-first day of December of the same year, the communist militia came to kill the village leader, who had rejected to cooperate with CPC. Liu Hulan participated in the action. At the time, places often changed hands between CPC and KMD. Then KMD army came to arrest local militiamen, CPC soldiers and family members of CPC caders, six in all. Then Liu Hulan was betrayed and arrested, too, making the number seven. On the twelfth day of January, 1947, KMD army called all the villagers gathering on a square before a temple there. As Liu Hulan was the youngest, the MKD company leading officer said to her that if she could declare openly to betray CPC, she could be spared. She said never. Then the other six adult prisoners were killed one by one on a hand hay cutter. At last the girl was brought forward and asked the question again. As she would not yield, she was also killed in the same way at the age of fourteen. She was the youngest Party member.

Yan Shanshan (1896—1952 ) was the first female movie star in China and also a member of the female bomb squadron during the revolution against Qing dynasty in 1911.
When she was in Hong Kong Yide Normal School, she got acquainted with Li Minwei (1893—1953) and on 1931 she was married to him. Then she and her husband founded the Hong Kong Meihua film Company, and in 1914, they made the movie called Zhuang Zi Tests his Wife. Zhuang Zi (369—286 BD) was an ancient scholar, who had a book collecting his articles. There was a story about how he tested the faithfulness of his wife to him. Once he feigned to be dead ad buried in a grave. Before his death, he told his wife that she could remarry if the earth on his grave was dry. Then his wife stayed by the side of his grave and fanned the earth in the hope that the earth would be dry faster than normally.
In this movie she played the role of a maid of the wife, and her husband acted the wife. All the female roles in the movie before were played by males in disguise. That was why she was deemed the first female movie star. Afterwards, she joined Shanghai Xinmin Film Company and starred in Goddess of Peace (1926), Five Revengeful Girls in 1928, and Reviving Romance in the same year. She gave up acting in that year.
Yan Shanshan was never a jealous woman. On the contrary, when in 1919, she met Lin Chuchu (1904—1979), another actress, she voluntarily introduced her to her husband and let her be another wife of Li Minwei. Li and Lin had formal wedding ceremony on the seventh of January in 1919. In old China it was lawful to have two wives at the same time. Both wives had the equal status in the family. In 1924, Li and Lin starred the movie Rouge as the male and female main characters. So Lin became a movie star, too. Yan died in 1952 at the age of fifty-six.

77. Wang Hanlun 王漢倫 (from a movie star to a business woman)
Wang Hanlun (1903—08/17/1978) was one of the earliest female movie stars in China. She was born in a big official family in Suzhou city. Then they moved to live in Shanghai. She was early educated in St. Mary's Hall, a female school run by the church in Shanghai. After the death of her father, at the age of sixteen, her brother forced to discontinue her schooling and arranged for her to marry an official, who had the adultery with a Japanese woman not long afterwards and deserted her. She had to teach in a primary school in Hongkou district of Shanghai for her living. Then she worked as a clerk in British-American Tobacco Co. (hk) Ltd., and then as a typist in Siming Foreign Firm, where she knew a female colleague, who was also a shareholder of Mingxing film company. As the colleague knew that she liked filming, the colleague took her one day to see the conductor, who was just looking for a female star for his movie. He told her to perform some actions and make some expressions on the face like smiling, angry, sad and happy. He thought that she was okay to be a star and signed a contract with her. Thus, she began her acting career.
Therefore, she resigned from her typist job. When her brother learned it, he was angry and wanted to send her back to their hometown Suzhou to punish her by family rules. In old families in that time, there were family rules to punish their sons and daughters who had done something against the rules or even the will of elders. But it was republic now. So Wang Hanlun declared to stop her relationship with the family so that they could not punish her by the family rules.
Her original name was Peng Jianqing. Now as she severed herself from her family, she changed her name to Wang Hanlun. The self-given name was really taken from Helen by sound, but in Chinese characters. So you can pronounce Hanlun as Helen.
The Mingxing Film Company was founded in 1922. The movie Wang had a role in it was called An Orphan Rescues His Grandpa. The movie was on in 1924 to the warm applause of the public. She then acted in other three successive movies. She became so well-known to the public that another film company, Changcheng Film Company, came to ask her to work for them and pay her more. She then transferred to that company. For this company, she filmed Deserted Woman and others. But this company did not pay her more, and her complaints came of no avail. She went to work for another company, Tianyi Film Company. As all the film companies paid her not to her satisfaction, she founded a film company of her own called “Hanlun Film Company.” She acted in a movie named Blind Love. All her movies had a tragic end. So she was nicknamed “first tragic star on the screen.” During the recess, she would go on the stage to greet her audience, which got her a lot of fans.
In 1931, she gave up filming and changed her aim to business. She opened a beauty shop in Shanghai. She was one of the first women who studied the beauty culture in China. When Shanghai was occupied by Japanese army, she had to close the shop. When the Japanese wanted her to work for them, she refused on the pretense that she was sick. So she lived in a poor condition by selling her belongings. In 1945 when Japan surrendered, she wanted to resume her acting. But as she went to a filming company, the owner rejected her, implying that she was too old. She was then in her forties.
In 1950 when CPC took reign over the mainland, the Kunlun Movie Company invited her to the role of Empress Dowager Cixi in the movie Legend of Wuxun. When Shanghai Film Factory was founded, she was given a job there and got salary as a clerk of something. But she was still assigned some side roles. When the Cultural Revolution began, though she was retired, the red guards came to her home and took away all the old films she kept for so long. She died of disease on the seventeenth of August in 1978 in the hospital.

Zhang Zhiyun (1904—1975) was the first movie queen in China. She was born in Fanyu town of Guangdong province and in childhood, moved to Shanghai with her family. When her father died, her family fell into financial difficulties. Therefore, she had to cease her education in the middle school.
At the beginning of 1924, Dazhonghua Film Company was founded and they put an advertisement on the newspaper, “Actresses wanted.” The application letters with a photo must be sent to the newspaper's mail box. Ten days later, they received about ten thousand female photos, but none of them were suitable. Then they found that a reporter working there secretly opened all letters and hid whatever photos he liked. After negotiation, he returned ten photos. Zhang's photo was one of them.
She was chosen and acted in two silent films, successfully. In 1925 she went to work for Mingxing Film Company. In 1926, the newspaper held an activity to vote for movie queen. Twelve actresses joined in it. Zhang was the first by getting 2146 votes. So she was the first movie queen in China.
She then participated in parties of the upper social circle and became to know Tang Jishan, a tea salesman. In 1927, she gave up her filming and went with him to America to sell tea. Tang just wanted to use her title of movie queen as his spokeswoman to advertise his products. But he did not know that American people never heard of the movie queen in China. So he failed and had to take her back to China. In 1931, he deserted Zhang and lived together with another movie star.
Then came the ages of sound film. As she could not speak mandarin, she had seldom any contracts. In 1933, she tried to act in a sound film and in 1935, in another sound film called New Peach Fan. But the audience did not acknowledge her success. She had to retire from filming circle again. In forties she got married and in fifties, she moved to live in Hong Kong till she died there.

79. Xuan Jinglin 宣景琳 (first actress with a private car and showing her bare legs to the public in China)

Xuan Jinglin (1904—01/22/1992) was born in Shanghai. Her father was a newspaper vendor. She went to the school run by Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai for free. As she could not stand the bully of the students coming from rich families, she gave up the schooling and went to learn Peking opera, because her uncle was the accountant in a theater, where Peking operas were performed. When her parents and elder brother fell sick, she was sold to a brothel for money for her family when she was still young. In the brothel she met a young man, who loved her, but his parents would not let him marry a prostitute.
Therefore, she started to save money her patrons gave her as gifts to redeem herself from the brothel. The bawd found it and took all her saved money away. She could do nothing about it. A poor young girl. By chance, she was found by the conductor of Mingxing Film Company. They had a new screenplay called Last Consciousness. The girl was fit for the role. They could not find other girls fit for it. Therefore, the company paid the money to the bawd for her redemption. She became a movie actress. That was in 1923. This movie was on in 1925.
Then she acted for the role of a whore in another movie called A Woman in Shanghai, which won her a great fame, as she acted from her won experience. She earned a lot of money and bought a car for herself. She was the first woman that had a car for her own use only. And she was also the first woman actress in China that showed her bare legs to the public.
The young man still loved the girl, especially she was now a famous movie star. Yet his parents rejected their marriage owing to the girl's whore background. Therefore, the conductor of the film company went to see the parents and persuaded them to accept the girl. Although the parents agreed to their marriage, they had some conditions. Firstly, there was no wedding ceremony. Secondly, the girl could not live in the house of the parents. The new couple had to rent a separate house. But there were always rumors about movie stars. And the husband often suspected her of something. Finally they divorced.
She filmed thirty-five movies. Another movie was The lady's Fan in 1928. Then when she grew old and there appeared more younger female actresses, she gradually faded from the screen. When CPC ruled over the mainland, Shanghai Film Factory was founded, and she was invited to act in the movie Family in 1956. She died in 1992 at the age of eighty-eight.

Hu Die (03/23/1908—04/23/1989) was born in Shanghai and when she was nine, the family moved to Canton. She went to Pooi To Middle School. In 1924, when she was sixteen, the family moved back to Shanghai. That year, the movie An Orphan Rescues His Grandpa was on. It touched audience, including the young Hu Die. So she set her heart on being an actress. She signed up as a candidate in Shanghai China Film School, which was the first such a school in China. She learned drama, film theory, and performing. She liked performing, and next year she was given a role in Exploits, which was her first movie.
She acted in more than twenty movies with different film companies. Her master piece was Twin sisters. She acted both sisters with different life experience, characters, and social status. It was so successful that it got the highest seat occupancy rate at the time.
When September 18th Incidents took place, a misfortune befell Hu Die. At the time she went with the filming crew to Peking. Coincidentally, the general Zhang Xueliang (see above) was also in Peking. That time, people in northeastern China were furious against the Japanese invaders. To transfer the anger of the Chinese people from Japanese to someone else, Japanese news agency spread a rumor that on the night of the incidents, Zhang was dancing with Hu Die. According to logic, Zhang should be fighting the invaders right on the night as northeastern China was his defending area. The rumor meant that Zhang neglected his duties. So people turned against Zhang and against Hu Die, too. Although she made a declaration openly on newspapers, there were still doubts.
On the New Year's Day of 1933, for the development of the filming business, the Daily Star of Shanghai proposed an activity to vote for female star queen again. Hu Die won the title by getting 21334 votes. She won another star queen title in 1934. In 1935, Russia held an international film festival in Moscow, Hu die was invited to attend. She was the only female movie star that was invited.
In November of 1937, when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese army, they took over the film company. So no film was made anymore. As the husband of Hu Die was in Hong Kong, she went there to join her husband. On the twenty-fifth of December in 1941, Japanese army occupied Hong Kong. In order to gain the support of Hong Kong people, especially of some famous people there, the Japanese asked Hu Die to act in the film Hu Die travels in Tokyo. However, Hu Die declined on the pretense that she was pregnant. On the twenty-fourth of November in 1942, Hu Die stole out of Hong Kong and went to Chongqing city, the temporary capital of the Chinese government at the time.
Soon she was under the control of Dai Li (05/28/1897—03/17/1946), the chief of the bureau of investigation and statistics of the military council of KMD. Dai always adored the beautiful movie star and wanted her to be his mistress. He even wanted to marry her. But he had an air crash in 1946. So she was free from him and went back to Hong Kong. She began to act in several films. In 1949, her husband died. Then she stopped filming for ten long years. In 1959, she recommenced to act in several films in Hong Kong or Taiwan. In 1960, on the Seventh Asian Film Festival held in Japan, she won the award of the best actress in the movie called Back door. She got the title of Asian star queen at the age of fifty-two. In 1966, she retired from the screen and lived in Taiwan. In 1975, she immigrated to Vancouver in Canada, and died there in 1989. Her last words were, “The butterfly will fly away.” The pronunciation of her name Hu Die literally meant Butterfly.

Li Minghui (06/1909—12/09/2003) was born in Shanghai. Her father was a famous composer and founded a Song & Dance Ensemble. So as a child, she could sing and dance. At the age of twelve, she began to step up on the stage to sing and she had more than fifty gramophone records as a singer. Her master piece of songs was called Drizzle.
At the age of thirteen, she got her first role, a supporting role, in a film. In 1925, she got another supporting role. From 1925 to 1928, she acted main roles in Little Factory Owner, Transparent Shanghai, and Women, etc. Nine movies in all during that period of time. She also acted some children's plays such as Grape Fairy, and Sparrow and Kids, etc. As she often acted the role of a young girl, she got he nickname “Little sister.”
In 1934, she married the famous football player at the time, who later went to Hong Kong to become a businessman. In 1937, she founded a nursery in Shanghai. When her husband died of liver cancer, she stopped acting career. In 1971, she was assigned the work of the secretary to take care of the daily life of the old curator of history museum. She died in a nursing home in Shanghai on the ninth of December in 2003.

Xu Lai (1909—04/1973) was born in Shanghai in a poor family. Therefore, she had to work in an egg factory run by a British businessman at the age of thirteen. Later as her family became better financially, she was able to attend school. At school, she was only a mediocre student , but began to like dancing. In 1927 when she was eighteen, she entered the China Song & Dance college. After graduation, she joined the China Song & Dance Ensemble, and married the founder of the ensemble, a Mr. Li. Then she headed the troupe to perform in Canton and Hong Kong. In 1928, the troupe went on the preforming tour abroad to Thailand, Singapore and Java, etc. Her great beauty and wisdom attracted large audience. She got the nickname “Oriental Beauty.”
In 1933, she was invited to act in a silent film Late Spring. She acted the role of a romantic girl from a wealthy family. The girl was known as a campus belle in the college. So many rich boys came to court her, but at last she made sacrifice for true love. There was even a scene of her in the bath. At that time, such a scene caused severe criticism from old prigs. Anyway, she became welcome and well-known. She received so many letters from her fans that she had hired a female secretary to help her to handle the letters. She was the first movie star in China that had a secretary. In 1935, she acted in the film called Boat Girl. That year, another famous movie star committed suicide. She was so shocked that she gave up filming for ever.
Then she got acquainted with a man Tang. She divorced Li and married Tang. She and Tang lived in Shanghai till 1949. During their stay, Shanghai was controlled by Japan. Tang came from a family of big landlord and spent money freely. He moved among those Chinese pro to the Japanese. So Tang was deemed as a traitor to Chinese people. But after the surrender of Japan, he revealed his true identity as a secret agent from KMD. So he was a patriot instead of a traitor. In 1949, they moved to Hong Kong. In 1950, Tang went to join the CPC's army and became a general. Tang and the army went south to fight with KMD's army. In 1956, he went to Beijing to work there. So Xu Lai went to live there. In the so-called great cultural revolution, she and her husband were put in jail. It was because when she was in Shanghai as an actress, she knew a lot of the scandals of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife. Almost all actors and actresses who had been in Shanghai at the time were persecuted. Xu was tormented in prison and she died in April of 1973 at the age of sixty-four.